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If you are thinking of moving to Utah, there is good news! “Our state is growing now, and as we look to the horizon, Utah’s growth prospects are truly bright,” Gov. Gary Herbert said in his State of the State speech on January 25, 2012, noting that is something not many governors can say, according to KSL news.

While the national economic future remains tenuous, Herbert said, the Utah economy surges ahead. The unemployment rate continues to steadily fall and the state currently has the second-fastest rate of job creation in the nation. And again, Forbes magazine named it the best place in the nation for business, he said.

Continue Reading Good News For Utah!

The Quality Residential Mortgage (QRM), a proposal by the government to tighten lending standards, has initiated quite a debate. The government feels strongly that standards must be raised while others have debated that the new guidelines are an example of the pendulum swinging back much too far.

For the government’s position on QRM, click here. For the other side of the debate, click here.

We do not want to enter this debate today. Instead, we just want to shed some light on the increased cost a buyer should expect under the new guidelines. The fact that it will cost a purchaser more is not argued by either side. The only question is the extent of the increase.

Continue Reading QRM: The Potential Cost to a Purchaser

Housing Starts jumped last month as builders got back to business. It’s a telling sign for the economy, but bad news for next season’s sellers.

With more homes coming online, home prices may be slow to rise nationwide.  

A “Housing Start” is a privately-owned home on which construction has started. In November, starts rose by nearly 9 percent while remaining within the same tight range we’ve seen since June.

More interesting that Housing Starts, though, is the accompanying data for Housing Permits. After a 5-month plateau, Housing Permits finally broke through, posting its largest number in 12 months.

This, too, bodes poorly for sellers.

Housing permits are precursors to housing starts so because the number of permits are higher today, we expect that the number of starts will be higher just a few months from now.

According to the Census Bureau, 82% of homes start construction within 60 days of permit-issuance.

More permits means more starts which, in turn, leads to a larger home inventory. And when home supplies grow faster than the home demand, prices fall.

Throughout the early part of 2010, low mortgage rates and federal tax credits should help hold demand high but if builders flood the market with new, quality product, sellers may find that they’ve lost some of their leverage.

For home buyers, the rise in starts is welcomed.

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